The latest traffic data for Ben Gurion International airport reflects the significant impact of the Israel-Hamas war on airline connectivity at Tel Aviv, despite the airport remaining open since the conflict began.
International passenger numbers at Israel’s main airport were down 71% year on year at 524,000 in December 2023, the report from Israel Airport Authority shows, while domestic passenger numbers were down 17%, at around 61,000.
The December figures do, however, represent a slight improvement from November – which covered the first full month since the conflict began – when international passenger numbers were down 78% year on year and domestic by 40%.
And despite the impact of the war on demand in the final quarter of 2023, Ben Gurion International airport recorded a 9% year-on-year rise in passenger traffic for the full year, at 21.1 million. The airport’s 2022 passenger total of 19.2 million came after a significant impact from Covid-related restrictions in the first few months of the year.
Before the war began, the airport had also been on course to beat its 2019 full-year passenger figure of 24 million.
Flag carrier El Al dominated flights at Tel Aviv in December 2023 and was the only airline to serve more passengers year on year, the report says, as most carriers continued with either pared-back schedules or outright service suspensions. The 416,000 international passengers served by El Al represented 79% of all passengers on such flights in December. In contrast, the 386,000 international passengers it served at the airport in December 2022 represented 23% of passengers on such flights.
Cargo handled at the airport was down 17% year on year in December 2023, at 27,900 tonnes, the report says.
Alongside Israeli carriers such as El Al, Israir and Arkia, the report shows that international operators including Ethiopian Airlines, Eithad Airways, Flydubai and Greek carrier Bluebird Airways have continued to serve Tel Aviv since the conflict began, albeit with significantly reduced traffic.
Connectivity appears to be improving in January as airspace security concerns abate, with Lufthansa Group carriers and Air France among those making a return to the airport during the month. Meanwhile, Ryanair, Transavia France and Smartwings have announced their intentions to resume some services to Tel Aviv from 1 February.
Other carriers that served Tel Aviv pre-war include Air Canada, British Airways, EasyJet, Emirates, Turkish Airlines, Wizz Air, Virgin Atlantic and the US majors. Several of them are also working towards tentative returns to Israel in the coming weeks and months.
Despite the significant impact of the war on Ben Gurion International airport and some others in the region, IATA noted earlier this month that because of the relatively contained nature of the war up to that point, the Middle East region as a whole had continued to record positive demand data during November 2023. Passenger traffic among the region’s carriers during the month – measured in revenue passenger kilometres – was some 19% higher year on year and 1.3% up on 2019.
IATA is due to release December 2023 traffic data in early February.
